Walk the Line

Ealasaid/ November 21, 2005/ Movie Reviews and Features

Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Patrick
Rated: PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency.
Parental Notes: This is a fairly standard PG-13; the subject matter and some of the language may not be appropriate for youngsters. There’s emotional abuse, death, drug use, and sex; they’re handled tactfully and not gratuitous, but they are still there.

The late Johnny Cash was an almost mythical figure: dark, brooding country music; a man dressed all in black; a life story of failings and redemption. “Walk the Line” is the story of how he became that figure, and Joaquin Phoenix lives the part fearlessly. Some die-hard Cash fans may bristle at Phoenix’s renditions of Cash’s songs, but the film is likely to please and will doubtless convert many folks unfamiliar with his music into dedicated followers.
“Walk the Line” traces Cash’s early life from his difficult childhood on a cotton farm to his rise to fame to his struggles with drugs and alcohol. We see him develop his signature sound, struggle with a failing marriage, and finally meet and woo the love of his life, June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). The film doesn’t shy from showing us Cash’s failings; he was an imperfect man in many ways and very aware of his own flaws. The rise-to-stardoom-and-struggle-with-drugs-before-getting-on-his-feet story may be something of a clich�, but it doesn’t feel like one here.
Witherspoon and Phoenix give flawless performances, doing their own singing and offering intense romantic chemistry. Cash had been a fan of the Carter family, especially young June, from the time he was a youngster, and Phoenix handles the evolution of that boyish crush into mature love with ease. As June Carter, Witherspoon practically glows. Her work in comedy serves her well here — we are told that Carter always considered herself the least-talented member of her musical family and learned to be witty as a way of compensating. Witherspoon balances the onstage bantering with Carter’s offstage practicality well, and it’s easy to see why Cash fell for her so hard. Both she and Phoenix did their own singing, and that just adds to the accomplishment.
Cash’s signature sound, that low-voiced, steady throb of song over a sharply played guitar, is infectious, whether he’s playing light-hearted songs or lonely prison ballads. It took time to develop that, and Phoenix has the chops to show us that development. When we first hear Cash singing to himself while writing songs, he sounds hesitant, unsure of himself. There’s something special there, but it’s not quite formed yet. As time passes, he settles more and more fully into the sound which made him famous. Phoenix handles it skillfully, and while there’s only one Johnny Cash, Phoenix recreates his sound very well — the closing credits scroll to a recording of Cash and Carter singing together, which drives home just how spot-on both his and Witherspoon’s performances are.
Although the film deals with difficult issues like drug addiction, adultery, and divorce, it does so gently. It would be easy to overdo Cash’s life story and surround pivotal events in his life with overacting, melodramatic music, and other tools for instructing the audience on how to feel. “Walk the Line” doesn’t do that. We see the bad things Cash does, but we also see the good in him. Nobody in this film is perfect, and no one is cast as a saint or an unredeemable sinner. It’s refreshing to see a film which handles things subtly and respects the audience’s intelligence.
“Walk the Line” is fantastic for music lovers, Cash fans, and moviegoers who like good acting, singing, and writing. Die-hard fans of the man in black will probably find some of the performances unnerving or imperfect, but this reviewer is of the opinion that Phoenix and Witherspoon come as close to the originals as could be hoped.
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